Yakuza 3 Eyes-on

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It's in English, and it looks glorious.

By Greg Miller

Way, way back in February, I masqueraded as a Japanese PlayStation 3 user, downloaded the Japan-only demo of Yakuza 3, and posted a bunch of videos here on IGN. It was a game of wailing on people in the streets of Japan, amazing looking cutscenes, and so much more, but I couldn't understand a word of it, and SEGA was noncommittal about the title coming to the States. Today, SEGA announced Yakuza 3 is indeed coming to the land of burgers and fries, and I even got to see it in action.

ENGLISH ACTION!

If you're just joining the Yakuza train, the third installment puts you in the ass-kicking shoes of Kiryu Kazuma. After some horrible stuff goes down at an orphanage, Kazuma heads to the fictional city of Kamurocho in Tokyo, which is based on the real city of Kabukicho and its shops and neon lights. You'll roam these streets GTA style and pick up missions while trying to get to the bottom of all the bad stuff.

Now, writing that makes Yakuza 3 sound like the most generic, forgettable game of all time, but I can assure you that it is anything but. As you roam around in this third-person game, you're going to get into fights with all sorts of lowlifes. As Kazuma, you're going to be brawling with these guys but it's not just punches and kicks – you can grab one guy by the collar, kick the guy behind you and then perform a devastating finisher. See, as you're fighting you're building your "heat gauge." When you're to the point of being able to pull off a finisher, Kazuma will glow with a blue fire. Push it past that, and he'll glow red.

Then, with the push of one button, you will wreck people's lives. Today, I saw our suit-wearing friend grab guys by the neck and slam them into street signs, slash them with his katana, kick them into walls, and literally stomp the mouth of some dude sprawled out on the street. On top of that, this game is not afraid of blood; it's everywhere. As Kazuma pounds guys it's getting kicked into the air and splattered on his fists. When the guys apologize or whatever after the brawl – even though the crap I saw would've paralyzed most, these guys all got up at the end – their faces are bruised and bloodied. It's awesome.

Beyond all that in-game beauty, the cutscenes are some of the best you'll find on the PS3. I saw one today where Kazuma was in one of the top floors in a high-rise talking to his boss, a blackout happened, a helicopter appeared, and the contraption decimated the place with a chaingun leaving shattered glass, a ruined office, and a bloodied body in its wake. Never mind the fact that in a later scene a girl embraces her friend and begins to cry some of the best looking tears I've seen in a videogame lately.

So, awesome-looking gameplay and some awesome-looking cutscenes that seem to be telling a cool story packed with side quests. Let's start talking about Tokyo in general. This city is alive with people of all sorts going about their daily business on the streets – streets that are lit up and alive just like the real city. You'll pass shops and arcades that you can actually go in and buy ramen or play games. In Club SEGA, I got to see Kazuma win a teddy bear from one of those claw games and a play a round of a shmup called "Boxcelios" where he shot the hell out of some mirrored looking ship. You're going to go on dates, you're going to karaoke (there's a button-based mini-game), and you're going to read (the game's sticking with the original Japanese voices only) a whole lot of cursing.

The calm before the storm.

The best printable line I read today was "Watch it, boy. I eat punks like you for breakfast."

I realize I'm coming off like a gushing school girl, but this game truly looks great. It was lauded in Japan and there was some real concern that it might never come here, so I'm pretty much on cloud nine after seeing all the cool stuff in it today. Now, it needs to be pointed out that Yakuza 3 is a very Japanese game. If you're not looking forward to roaming the streets of the Rising Sun or listening to Japanese voice acting or seeing little translation errors like the "lone shark" that was shaking one of Kazuma's friends down for money, this might not be the game for you. However, the focus on action, blood, presentation, and the sheer amount of stuff to do should really appeal to a lot of gamers out there.

People like me. People who won't be able to sleep until March because they're too juiced on excitement.